Tempted By The Mafia Boss

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

Gabe

My father can be a real bastard when it comes down to business.

He can be a prick a lot of the times too. But it’s times like these, times when the shit comes to surface when I rely on his wisdom.

One thing he always tells me over and over again is be grateful for small mercies during fucked up times.

It’s a code he’s lived by as the boss of the Giordano family, and how he stayed boss in a big family like ours, even surpassing his older brother.

I’m listening to his wisdom now and grateful as fuck that Christian was able to contact Jo, a hacker we hired some time ago. He hacked the fuck out of the systems records the Antonellas kept for the mine and was able to get a map.

The map was messaged to me on my phone and I did the best I could by saving it because I knew I wouldn’t be able to access it again once I stepped in the mine and the signal went.

That is exactly what happened.

That and gaining the knowledge of the areas where there were no surveillance so Tobias wouldn’t have been able to see me.

The use of the map and the little I had got me this far…

I look around the area and I’m in the mouth of the cave. The section that’s completely abandoned. Not been used for decades by the looks of things. I know though this can’t be where the Antonellas do business.

It looks like no one’s been down here in years. There’s the faint trace of daylight coming from the cracks in the roof, but I also have a flashlight I shine over the path before me.

There’s dust, rusty equipment, broken equipment, abandoned digging sections and random shit everywhere. The tunnel I’m on looks like it goes on for miles and seems to be the area mining work was carried out when the workers were mining coal.

Where I need to get to is a little way up.

That’s what the map suggested. Tobias said there was a bomb in a room, and there’s no rooms down here. There are however rooms above this section and fucking hell I’m aware of the time.

I’m aware and it’s taken me twenty minutes already to get to this part. I have forty minutes to get to the bomb or get to Charlotte, or do whatever the fuck it is I’m supposed to do.

What I’m raging about is I don’t fucking know if what I’m doing is wrong or right. I don’t know if where I’m going is right and I won’t make the mistake of slowing down to try and figure out what that motherfucker is up to.

I look at the map as I near the section I’ve been aiming for. There’s a fork that splits off and it looks like I’m on the right path when I see an actual paved path ahead of me that goes down another tunnel, except this part looks like people have been down here. It absolutely fucking does.

I step on the pavement while looking on the map. There’s supposed to be another level section below me of two levels down and I can get to that by following this path.

I see there’s an underground river that must flow out to the main one I passed getting here.

Two minutes into walking and I see I’m right about the place looking like people have been here. There’s footprints in the dust and the air about me feels different. I always think when people have been around a place the air is different.

Here on Antonella land the air is definitely different because it smells of shit.

Fresh death.

I can always tell the difference between the ones who’ve been dead for a while and the newly deceased. It’s the blood I think. It amplifies the smell on the most recent to pass.

So, looks like either Tobias or one of his equally deranged family members have definitely been up to the usual shit down here, and some poor bastard or a group of them have been unfortunate enough to suffer their wrath.

How they mainly work is you just disappear. You just fucking disappear and then the cops may find a head, or hand somewhere.

That’s it. Just something to identify the dead and that only happens when Barabbas Antonella gives the all clear that he’s ready to give the notification to the world that the person is dead.

I look at the map again when motion sensor lights click on and brighten the whole area up. There should be a path coming up in about a minute.

I pray to God, I’m on the right track. I really do. All this time spent getting here it would be doom if I’ve wasted it.

“Cheeeeater!” Explodes a voice.

Tobias’ voice. I snap around to see if the prick is behind me but he’s not. He’s not ahead of me either.

“Cheater, how the fuck did you get a map!” he roars. His voice is coming from the intercom.

And I’m guessing I’m back in the areas where there’s surveillance so he can see me, see what I’m doing.

That wasn’t something I was going to concern myself with when Christian told me about the surveillance.

With one hour to get shit done there was no way I was going to be able to worry about all the shit, so I chose what shit to worry about.

“I have my ways,” I cry back and increase my pace. If it’s one thing I know it’s this; when you get a motherfucker who’s trying to screw with you mad, you must be doing something right.

So I must be on the right path and I’m sure he never intended for me to get this far. He wanted me to wonder around in shit looking for a path and happen upon the bomb. That’s fucking what. I get it now. I’ll bet my ass that’s it. His rage and the tone of his voice also confirms I must be near Charlotte.

I start running on that thought and head down the path I saw for the rooms.

A bullet whizzes past my ear and I duck. Glancing over my shoulder I see I got company.

Three big bulky meatheads that look like they belong in a Batman comic barge down the corridor toward me and the assholes aim and shoot at me.

No fucking way am I gonna allow them to get me.

Fucking, fuck that.

They’re quick though. May be big and burly but they’re quick on their feet and make work of getting close to me.

I turn onto a corridor and it doesn’t feel right because I’m back in the caved area and the space is wide again with a big drop down into the river. I hear water flowing but can’t see because it’s darker.

It’s on the outside of the area that I just left and has that old feel again.

A fist out of nowhere lands straight in my jaw and knocks me off my feet. I drop my flashlight and my damn phone slips down a crack in the earth.

Shit.

And fuck, I don’t have time to lament over the loss of my phone when a guy lands on top of me and starts throwing one punch after another in my face.

The only thing I care about losing is my guns. Everything else can go. I also don’t care for rolling around with any of these fucktards when I don’t have time.

I don’t have time for shit.

It occurs to me though that if they’re here maybe there is no bomb but I can’t assume. With messed up fucks like Tobias you have to take them seriously until you’re proven wrong. So I’m doing exactly that.

I raise my knee and manage to launch it straight into the idiot getting him in the balls hard. So hard he yelps back howling with the pain. That gives me the chance to whip my gun out and end his ass. One bullet to the head, smack between his eyes.

I do that too for the other three guys who were on my ass when I was on the corridor.

One, two, three, go down but more come. They come from above. There’s a staircase against the rock coming from one of the rooms. Looks like Tobias was really hellbent on stopping me in my tracks so this makes me think all the more that I must be close to Charlotte.

I must be close.

Fuckers, let them come. I keep firing and I get a few but miss a few.

I recall the image of the map in my head and try to remember where I am exactly. The rooms are near here. If I can get to the floor below me then it would be a start.

As I dodge a bullet I glance over my shoulder at the edge. The water.

The thought takes me and moves me into action. The water will get me away from here and hopefully closer to where I need to be.

Better to go up from further down than go down if bullets are coming for me.

I came up earlier and I figured I needed to get to that section again but the other side.

I launch myself over the side and they still shoot at me. The bullets still continue to come even as I plunge deep beneath the surface of the water.

The dank, dark water that envelopes me.

I swim against the pull of the current and power through it toward the edge. I reach one powerful hand up and grab the rock jutting from the formation. Pulling myself up I get on the surface. It’s a dirt surface again and there’s a faint light coming from my left. It’s not daylight pouring through, so I know I’m on the right track.

I rush forward and get back on a corridor section and the motion sensor lights flick on again.

The floor below me turns to glass and I can see another level below. That must be the lower floor. The problem is there’s rooms on all the levels that I need to go through. I just hope I have time.

Fear propels me forward but movement below through the glass floor catches my eye just as I’m about to run past.

I stop midstride and almost fall over my feet when I see Charlotte down there. She’s on the floor sitting against the wall, crying. Sobbing.

I drop to my knees and bang on the roof, but she can’t hear me.

I have to get down there.

She’s right there. She’s actually here.

I found her.

Fuck…

The rage of the shit takes over my mind and I whip out my guns. Taking a few steps back, I start shooting the floor/ her roof.

She screams and tries to move away which is great but I don’t want her to run away and run into the arms of the enemy.

My soul rejoices when the floor shatters and I jump down the hole. I fall hard, so hard it could have knocked me out if I hadn’t tucked and rolled forward.

She stops cowering when she sees it’s me and rushes forward.

“Gabe!” she cries throwing herself into my arms.Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

Jesus. The feel of her in my arms is like nothing else. I’m holding her and I know we aren’t out of the woods yet. We’re still here in the mines but I have her.

“I’m so sorry,” she wails. “I’m so sorry.”

“Baby…” I hold her tight against me and I remember there’s even more to love about her. She’s carrying my baby.

I hold her out and look at her beautiful tearstained face , then I press my hand to the flat of her stomach and she starts crying harder.

Not even a badass prick like me can evade the tug of emotion that takes me as I realize what I’m holding in my hand is everything I ever wanted.

“You know,” she says.

“I know, Goddess.” I nod and tear runs down my cheek.

I pull her back in for another hug. One more, a few seconds. A few seconds I know I can’t afford. But I just want to relish her for a few seconds more.

Just a few and then we’ll get the fuck out of here.